OF CORPORATE PRAYER

A practical encouragement from Pastor Kyle on praying in the gathering. This piece was originally published in the July 11th ITC bulletin. 

One of the reasons we’ve been so eager to gather in a single service is so that we might all benefit, learn, and grow together as we pray together. Corporate prayer has been a big part of our evening services for the past couple of years. But now, we’ll have many opportunities on Sunday mornings to join our hearts together in prayer.

We will often pray together by inviting any member of our church to go to a microphone (located throughout the room) to offer a prayer. But in preparation for those times, we thought it might help to give some direction and encouragement. Many times I’ve talked with people who feel unsure about how to pray publicly. Although they have a deep desire to pray, they also want to do it in a way that’s helpful and edifying for the body.

So, I thought today would be a good day to give you a quick encouragement for praying in our services. It’s as easy as ABCC:

Audible. We pray publicly so all can join in and make another’s prayer their own. This practice allows us to “Amen” a prayer with our mouth (or, at least, our heart). For this to happen, we all need to be able to hear the prayers. So, although we use microphones to help, you can serve the body by speaking a little more loudly and clearly than you might otherwise. And we’ll try to say “Amen” clearly when you’re done!

Biblical. Certainly, we want to pray consistently with the truths of God’s word. But also, using scripture in corporate prayer can be one of the most edifying ways to pray with others, especially when you’re not quite sure what to pray. We have watched God grow this tremendously in our prayer times as elders. Believers never tire of hearing the promises and purposes of God’s word applied to their lives in prayer.

Concise.  To benefit from the prayers of the body, we want to create as much space for others to offer prayers as we can. Typically, we will allot a portion of the service (say, the length of a song or two) to corporate prayer. If we all intentionally pray more brief prayers, it will allow us to hear from and be blessed by more of our members during this time.

Corporate. Okay, this is a bonus “C.” I include it because we can too easily fall into the patterns we use when we pray privately as Christians each day. In private prayers, we pray about our individual and personal concerns. We use the language of “me” and “my.” But in corporate prayer, we pray about the concerns of the whole body. So, it might be more helpful during these times to use the language of “us” and “our.”

We’re excited to join in prayer together during our worship gathering. And we’d love for you to pray. So, if you’re a little hesitant, remember the ABCC’s of corporate prayer.

It’s easy for me to think of this concept of sowing and reaping in a direct, momentary, cause-and-effect way. If I give in to a specific temptation and end up sinning, it will have an immediate and specific consequence that I need to either suffer through or repent of (or both). The same is true with doing something that pleases the Lord; an act of kindness or an encouraging word usually brings an immediate effect and a fast response from someone who is uplifted by it.

But I’m starting to think that in addition to these immediate and obvious moments, there may also be a continual, big-picture sowing going on in our lives, an accumulative effect of the attitudes we choose and the decisions we make: attitudes of humility or pride, of giving or taking; decisions to either follow God’s ways or give in to selfishness. Through time, these add up—the thoughts I practice and decisions I make in the Spring and Summer of my life bear slow-growing fruit (or slow-growing weeds) that don’t show up until the Autumn and Winter of my life.

It occurs to me that this may be especially true for sins of the mind; the times we don’t say the angry or hateful thing, but we think it. The times we don’t act on our desire or feelings, but we allow our minds to fill with lust or greed or envy. The times we grumble and complain about others safely behind their backs. In Matthew 5, Jesus said:

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment….” —Matthew 5:21-22

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” —Matthew 5:27-28

How do we not let the barrage of inner struggles and failings we are prone to choke out the long term fruit of spiritual maturity and wisdom we hope for down the road? How do we arrive at the end of our lives with more growth than regret? With the sweetness of a soul that shines with the light of Christ instead of the bitterness of a self-absorbed soul that everyone has to tolerate? I believe Philippians 4 outlines the seeds we need to sow to reap big-picture, lifelong fruit:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. —Philippians 4:4-9

In all honesty, brothers and sisters, what things are you letting your mind dwell on each day, even each hour? Are they true? Honorable? Just? Pure? Lovely? Commendable? Excellent? Praiseworthy? Or do your thoughts more often fuel sin or feed the selfish side of your soul, justifying questionable behavior and building yourself up in your own eyes?

I still remember something Pastor Kyle said in a sermon a few years ago: “Through practice we are becoming something.” This is a profound spiritual truth. If we do as Paul suggests and take to heart the things we practice—especially the unseen things we roll around in our minds—we can arrive at the end of our lives with more growth than regret, with joyful peace instead of fearful pride, and a Father who is pleased with what's been reaped over the course of our entire lives.

David spent portions of his life fighting bears and lions, fighting against Goliath (1 Samuel 17), fleeing for his life as Saul sought to kill him, and escaping for his life again as his own son, Absalom, sought to kill him. He lived a life full of trials.

Reading David’s prayers and songs, I was struck by a resounding reminder from the life, pursuit, passion, and cry of David: A persistent longing to be in the presence of the Lord. There is nowhere in all of life he would have rather been than in worship of him and meditation about Him.

“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.” —Psalm 27:4

David’s request, “one thing have I asked of the Lord”, led to David’s pursuit,
“that I will seek after,” namely, “to dwell with the Lord all the days of his life.”

David genuinely believed that there was no better place in all of existence to be than to be in the presence of the Lord. David proclaims in Psalm 84:10: “... day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.”

In other words, that which consumed David more than anything in life is His ardent pursuit of God. This was the driving force of what he thought about, talked about, wrote about, sang about, prayed about, and lived. David wanted to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, dwell with him, think upon him, talk with him.

Is this true of my life? Is this true of your life? Is this true of our life together as a church? Let us be changed by the reality that God in his kindness gave us Jesus (Titus 3) that we might be reconciled to him and that we might know him and that we would cry out—even as David does in the Psalms, and as Paul does in Philippians 3 when he says, “that I may to know him, the power of his resurrection and may share his suffering.”

May this be true of us individually and corporately as a body together

I have to admit, I’m tired of it. How much more can I take? How long can I hold out before collapsing? If there’s one thing that’s becoming abundantly clear through this strain, it’s that I don’t have what it takes. I’m not strong enough. On my own, a breakdown is imminent.

Thank God I can look to the words of Jesus for hope and strength!

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” —Luke 6:46-49

Jesus was teaching with tremendous depth in this passage, talking about the essence of salvation and the difference between hearing and doing—but he was also saying things about what this world is like and how to live in it. The simple, biblical truth is, we cannot withstand the life pressures we face on our own. Our lives need to be deeply built into the foundation of our savior, Jesus Christ.

The measure of the depth of our foundation in Christ is also shown in this rich passage. Are we men and women who hear his words and do them? The wonderful, comforting, miraculous thing is, we can be! God’s Word doesn’t hide or complicate what Jesus has told us to do:

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” —Mark 12:28-31

Beautiful. Elegant. Possible. If you’re wondering who your neighbor is, read on in Mark 12. If, like me, you wonder if you’re loving your neighbor enough through these (or any) times, Paul shares some details about that in his letter to the Colossians:

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. —Colossians 3:12-14

In these ways, we lay an unshakeable foundation. As the flood of this unusual year continues to rise, I can rest on the rock. When I’m weary, I can stop fighting and start forgiving. When relationships get hard, I can turn from control to kindness. Instead of clinging to my pride, I can practice patience. And the most amazing thing of all? It truly does take the pressure off. I’m going to make it through 2020, not because I’m strong enough to endure the stress, but because Jesus is, and he's told me exactly what I need to do.

The apostle Paul wrote these words to encourage his protégé, Timothy, in the hard work of gospel ministry. When Paul wrote this letter, he knew that his time was short. He sat in a Roman prison waiting to be executed; therefore, Paul’s words will have an edge to them, a sense of urgency given his circumstances.

When Paul tells Timothy that “God gave us a spirit not of fear,” he’s not suggesting that Timothy was known as a fearful man. These words are meant to compel young Timothy to engage in gospel ministry with diligence and all the force of the Holy Spirit at his back. But here’s the interesting thing about Paul’s statement: the Greek word translated as fear here occurs only once in the entire New Testament. It only occurs in our passage. This word means the lack of inner, moral strength that leads to cowardice in battle.

When we examine the broader context of Paul’s second letter to Timothy, we see that it also supports this interpretation of this rare, Greek word for fear. For example, in 2 Timothy 1:14, Paul exhorts his young protégé to guard the gospel. In first century Rome, soldiers did the guarding. Then, in 2 Timothy 2:1-4, Paul likens Timothy’s leadership task to that of a faithful soldier who stays on task. Later, in 2 Timothy 2:15, the apostle exhorts his protégé to view himself as an approved—or battle-tested—workman. Finally, Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:7 that he has fought the good fight.

Make no mistake friends, Timothy knew the consequences for proclaiming the gospel. He was with Paul during the apostle’s imprisonment (see Philippians 2:19-22). Like any wise mentor, the apostle refuses to sugarcoat life as a follower of Christ. The pressure to cower in the face of Roman oppression in Timothy’s day was extreme and life-threatening. For this reason, Paul exhorts Timothy to rekindle his passion for the gospel. He’ll need that passion set on fire by the Holy Spirit, who hasn’t given him a spirit of cowardice.

Here in the United States, we don’t face death threats for our allegiance to Christ and his gospel. But you and I do face constant pressure to conform to the image of this world. We are presented with ever so slight variations of the truth that slowly and subtly cause us to drift from a pure and right understanding of God. The enemy of our souls is crafty and devious. We must be alert and confident.

There are no cowards in Christ’s army (Ephesians 6:10-13) and his kingdom (see Revelation 21:8).

Lord, open our eyes to the compromises taking root in us and around us, so that we may renounce them. Emblazon your truth on our hearts, and give us a spirit of boldness to proclaim Christ and your gospel to everyone we encounter. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

The Living God is great, good, and glorious. In light of the gloriousness of who He is, I am convicted by how small, myopic and circumstantial my prayers can be. The nature of my prayer is directly connected to my view of God. Small view of God = small requests. Big view of God = big requests.

Continually, daily—and in fact, hourly—I need my heart and mind to be reminded of the greatness and glory of God and for prayer to align and be in accordance with the greatness of who He is.

We know God is rich in mercy, steadfast in his love, altogether kind, perfectly good and rightfully just (Psalm 145).

Through Christ Jesus we have life and have access to the throne of grace and can come to the king as a child comes to his father.

Wonderfully astounding!!!

In light of all that is true in the gospel hope we have in Christ, how then should we pray? What would be befitting of our prayer?

The Scriptures are overflowingly full of how we ought to pray (Matthew 6; Ephesians 1:15-23; Ephesians 3:14-21), and I want to offer a few ways to pray for those in our lives who have yet to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.

Pray for boldness – Paul, who was in prison for proclaiming the Gospel, asked the church in Ephesus to pray that he would have boldness in the proclamation of the Gospel and that words would given to him as he proclaimed (Ephesians 6:19-20). We must likewise pray for utterance from God and boldness. Broken-hearted boldness that loves people enough to proclaim the hope of the gospel to them.

Pray for others specifically by name – Those who do not yet know Christ Jesus need to be prayed for specifically by name. The Lord loves to answer prayer and we need to be a praying for others by name. Maybe this is a co-worker, maybe a close neighbor or maybe a family member. Let us be found faithful praying for them by name.

Pray with endurance – We must be perseverant and endure in prayer, even if the answers don’t come quickly. One of the most encouraging stories of faith you could read in modern history is of the life of George Müller. He was a man devoted to the Lord, constant in prayer and lingered long to behold God by opening his Bible and seeking the Lord. The Lord used him to care for over 10,000 orphans in his lifetime. A.T. Pierson, in his biography George Müller of Bristol: His Life of Prayer and Faith, recounts his endurance and perseverance:

“George Müller was an unwearied intercessor. No delay discouraged him. This is seen particularly in the case of individuals for whose conversion or special guidance into the paths of full obedience he prayed. On his prayer list were the names of some for whom he had besought God, daily, by name, for one, two, three, four, six, ten years before the answer was given. The year just before his death, he to the write of two parties for whose reconciliation to God he had prayed, day by day, for over sixty years, and who had not yet to his knowledge turned unto God: and he significantly added, “I have not a doubt that I shall meet them both in heaven; for my Heavenly Father would not lay upon my heart a burden of prayer for them for all these years, if He had not concerning them purposes of mercy.” (p.302)

What a testimony of perseverance and endurance. O that we would be those who live and pray boldly knowing that the Lord is at work and works through the prayers of his people! Our God is mighty to save. Remember again that if you are a Christian, Jesus saved you and reconciled you for His glory and praise. Let us be perseverant in prayer for others who are yet to be rescued from their life of sin and rebellion against God and brought into the kingdom! Jesus is at work in you and through you through the power of His Spirit.

As fun as the board games were, they were sometimes tense because one of our friends couldn’t resist trying to cheat. If the game involved dice, he would try to turn them to a favorable number when he thought no one was looking. If it involved armies, he would try to sneak a few extra troops onto the board when the rest of us were distracted. If it involved money, he would cleverly count wrong in his favor. We knew his tricks and would often catch him at it, chastising him in the animated manner of boys. He would grudgingly confess, make right his wrongdoing and we would go on with the game, satisfied that justice had been upheld.

What I could never figure out back then was why my friend kept trying to cheat. We could all see the costs of getting caught—public humiliation, being hated by your friends, facing consequences if parents found out, the risk of being excluded from future games…. We also instinctively knew the cost of not getting caught—winning dishonestly was just not satisfying; who could savor such a hollow victory?

But try he did, and at the time I just didn’t get it. In hindsight, I better understand the sociological and family conditions that led to his compulsion. But beneath all that, there was an even more straightforward answer—my friend was a slave to sin. I only recognized this when, just a few years later, I discovered that I, too, was a slave to sin. Yes, his unique conditions made his sin manifest more obviously than the subtle lies and acts of pride I was trying to pull off, but our hearts had always been the same. We both were bound to do wrong, even knowing we were bound to get caught or that getting away with it made us feel empty instead of good.

Thank God for the gospel of Jesus Christ, which breaks the chains of sin! Instead of being bound to the shame and condemnation we deserve, we have been forgiven by a merciful Father, set free and washed clean through faith in Christ and repentance:

“For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” —Titus 3:3-7

Just a few years after I realized I was a slave to sin and needed the free gift of God’s grace through faith in Christ to set me free, my cheating friend discovered the same thing. Today, the cheating friend of my childhood is my brother in the Lord. Praise God for the mercy he pours out on us! And it makes me wonder: What slave to sin in my life today will be my brother or sister in the Lord tomorrow?

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” —Romans 6:22-23

An encouraging sentence, truth, or Scripture said at the right time in the right way serves others in ways that bring great glory to Christ. Yet, we often get discouraged in our lives thinking spiritual growth doesn’t happen as well or as fast as we would want.

Spiritual growth can seem as imperceptible as watching a tree grow from one day to the next. Patient plodding forward in our walk with Jesus is necessary for every one of us throughout life; through the difficult, dark and fearful valleys, and through those vicious fights against the flesh.

We can praise God with all of our hearts for He who saved us is the one who is faithful to sanctify us as well and will bring us to our eternal home with Him (Romans 8:28-30).

This is gloriously true: We need to remember that the Lord uses His means for this sanctification to occur and He uses His body to build one another up. We need each other to help fix our gaze upon Jesus and the work He is accomplishing!

We can encourage one another in the patient plodding through life by telling others how we have seen them grow recently.

I was in a conversation a few days ago after some prayer time with a brother and he said to me, “Dustin, you won’t believe how ‘so-and-so’ has grown over the past two years! It is absolutely miraculous to see the Spirit of God at work in his life.” This did my heart good to know how others are growing in the Lord and pursuit of Him.

There is likely someone in your life, in the body of ITC, you can - and need - to encourage by writing to them, calling them, texting them and clearly articulating how you have seen God at work in their life.

We build one another up as we walk by the Spirit and give encouragement by expressing how we have seen God at work in and through each other.

The Lord uses these fitly spoken words to accomplish His great and glorious purposes to build up His body and be a light to the world!

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

As you read this passage, you’re probably thinking, “That’s Jesus, our Lord and teacher. He really knew how to speak to those insufferable, self-righteous Pharisees!” Which he certainly did—over and over throughout the gospels, we see him confronting the Jewish religious leaders about their arrogance and self-exaltation. He called them hypocrites, blind guides, a brood of vipers.

But the interesting thing about this passage is, Jesus was not speaking to the Pharisees. He was speaking to his disciples, the ones who called him Lord and teacher. Let’s look at the beginning of this passage again (verse 9):

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt….

Jesus, the humble, peaceful leader of the downtrodden, whose disciples were tax collectors and fishermen—people about as far from being Pharisees as you can get—had to address those among his followers who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and who treated others with contempt.

If you thought that followers of Christ weren’t like that, think again. Self-exaltation is the oldest of sins; Lucifer sought to exalt himself above God, and tempted Jesus to do the same. Not one of us is immune to this temptation—it happens in the blink of an eye. One moment you’re trying to be patient, the next you’re posting a comment on Facebook that makes you look good and someone else look bad. One moment you’re trying to be understanding, the next you’re saying something that makes it clear how little you think of someone, or something held dear by others. James is right to call the tongue a fire that sets forests ablaze, a world of unrighteousness.

As hard as it is to face the fact that we are among those whom this parable is aimed at, we are not left without hope. Jesus concludes this passage with a biblical principle we can burn into our minds and souls:

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

There’s our lesson, and our goal. But is it really possible to humble ourselves when our natural state is pride? If we look back to the parable, it seems to be more of a matter of perspective than effort. The Pharisee obviously adores himself and considers himself (and his religion) the most important thing in this world. He strikes me as the kind of man who would be continually checking himself out in his own reflections. But what about the tax collector? His awareness of his sin and his need for the gospel is so strong, he can’t even look up. That’s not only the starting point of salvation, it’s a constant truth, the correct perspective to carry with us through every hour of every day. It’s a view of ourselves that will allow us to not just try our best to be humble (and fail), but to actually be humble.

In gospel humility, we will find ourselves justified before God, for he opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. As you go through your days, keep the honesty and wisdom of the tax collector in mind, and you might just start being humble.

“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” —James 4:10

When we turn to the Scriptures, the Lord shows us something altogether different. Indeed, God’s word does teach us that we have an enemy who opposes us from the outside (1 Peter 5:8). But the Holy Spirit also reminds God’s church that we have enemies on the inside. For example, the apostle Paul warns the Ephesian elders in Acts that false teachers will rear their ugly heads in the future (Acts 20:30). The apostle John warns against having fellowship with professing Christians who deny Christ’s incarnation (2 John 1:7-10). 

Despite these warnings of the apostles, it wasn’t easy for the early church to discern when professing Christians began straying from our Lord and his word. Neither is it a piece of cake for us in the summer of 2020. The battle for our sanctification in Christ doesn’t always face its toughest opposition from outside the church. Sometimes our struggle against sin intensifies as we see fellow brothers and sisters in Christ embrace sinful teaching and practices. Sometimes it’s so subtle we don’t even realize it’s happening.

I saw this play out over a four-year stretch while I lived in Los Angeles. Many of my peers began embracing the poisonous doctrine known as universalism. This odious view teaches that God will save all people; therefore, hell is empty. Another view that captivated the hearts and souls of many was the notion that the younger generations needed to reinterpret the Scriptures to promote the inherent goodness of the LGBT agenda. There were certain leaders exhorting my generation to lead the church into new ways of reading and interpreting the Bible regarding LGBT issues.

All of this brings us to 2 Corinthians 6:14 where Paul writes these words: “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness. Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” I’ve always understood this verse to apply solely to dating relationships and marriage. Now I see that the context has to do with Christians yoking themselves together with professing Christians who deny Christ and his word. What does this mean?

When I raised my concerns with my friends and peers at church about their readiness to jettison the Bible for the sake of spearheading something new, I found myself at odds with people I had considered like-minded friends. This raised questions for me as to what Christian community should like, and what it should be founded upon. Some of these edgy leaders spoke in a conversational way that captivated many of my peers. For some reason, I couldn’t buy what they were selling. All I knew at the time was that these leaders sounded too much like the serpent. Therefore, I left that church and its family of churches.

In my life, I have seen a real cost to obeying my Lord by obeying his word in 2 Cor 6:14. I experienced grief and anger and exasperation. Why couldn’t my peers see the spirit of the antichrist working in their midst? How come they couldn’t tell the difference between the serpent’s voice and the Good Shepherd’s? Even now, it’s tragic to see where these men and women are today as I see their posts on my Twitter and Facebook feeds.

How do you see the Lord inviting you to obey 2 Cor 6:14 in your life and relationships?